Even as the global financial system is preparing itself against cyberwar, utility and weather-related risks, it faces a major threat from another yet seemingly unlikely source, public health and business continuity planning (BCP) experts warned in findings from an industry-U.S. government exercise late last year. A sneeze in a conference room or elevator can spread a disease that can shut business down and can affect one market center after another, the experts say. The worry is not that too many employees will take too many sick days, even if they're ill, but that evolving strains of influenza can quickly spread globally with far-reaching and devastating results. The impact is already being felt with rising rates of flu-related illnesses and deaths, public health authorities throughout the United States and in the UK have reported. In 1918 a pandemic of the so-called "Spanish Flu" killed about 30,000 people in New York City, 500,000 in the U.S. and as many as 50 to 100 million
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